A convent in Venice, Instituto San Guiseppe, is recommended by some travel guidebooks, and reviews posted on Trip Advisor are quite positive. Rick Steves does not mention the convent in his book. What might be the reason he does not recommend it.
Posted by
Forest Grove, OR
11379 posts
Hello David.
We've had some great experiences with non-RS lodgings (as well as some with RS recommendations!). Rick cannot list all options in a city. I use Trip Advisor to check what people are saying about a place Rick recommends and sometimes TA leads me to look at natives. It looks like a great location, and the few negative reviews are in the way past. Mind the curfew. One reviwer said midnight, but the Monastery Stys website says 10:30 most of the year, 11:00 in summer. We don't stay our late, but I'd find that restrictive.
Posted by
Virginia, USA
5588 posts
"What might be the reason he does not recommend it." Maybe he has never stayed there. In most cities, RS generally focuses on just a few places and a few neighborhoods. Venice has hundreds of places to stay. RS can't possibly visit all of them. I hardly ever choose places out of the RS books anymore. I usually find tripadvisor has far more information.
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA
7737 posts
Tripadvisor is only one source and keep in mind that anyone can post reviews there. Booking.com and Venere.com are similar sites except their reviews are limited to people who actually stayed at the hotels/B&Bs. You can't do a review on their site unless you booked your stay through them. That makes the booking.com and venere.com reviews more reliable. The catch is that they don't list as many places, since the businesses have to pay a fee to be listed. There's no such fee for a Tripadvisor listing.
Posted by
Montreal, Québec, Canada
17 posts
Last summer we stayed at a Best Western (San Elena) whic his very well situated and accessible by vaporetto (after Arsenal).When arriving from airport, took Aliguna water bus to Lido and Vaporetto to san Elena.
Clean, European charm despite being a chain,very good bkst included
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
I agree with the posts above. The fact that Rick Steves does not mention a particular place means nothing. As said, Venice has hundreds of places to stay, and he cannot possibly have looked at all of them. Also, he tends to focus on a few neighborhoods in each city. A lodging in another neighborhood will not be in his book, no matter how nice. I always cross-check his listings with other books and websites. Here's a thread from another forum, from 2009, about the Instituto San Giuseppe: http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/anyone-ever-stay-at-istituto-san-giuseppe-in-venice.cfm